Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Specmaster]

If it was a zero feedback buyer it might get relisted in a couple of days with "no timewasters". I've had to do that recently when shifting some stuff. No I'm not shipping 12Kg packed to fecking Guernsey for the basic parcel force rate. Grr

Playing around with aeroplanes is more fun than eBay anyway

Yep, especially when one of those planes is a authentic Red Tail Mustang complete with patched bullet holes. 

[bd139]

Nice. A proper one. I'd love to fly one of them

I possessed a PPL and regularly flew a shitty little Cessna 152 but had to jack it thanks to a detached retina and sight problems after a taxi driver skipped a red and flattened me while I was riding my bicycle into work in London

Anyway will keep on topic as this is test equipment anonymous

[bitseeker]

They're certainly rare enough (the old black ones for sure!) that I'm usually willing to go $15-20 more for a piece of gear that has that vs one that does not.  The newer olive and putty colored ones are readily available, so they're much less of an issue.

Conversely, lately the lack of an HP emblem has made me less inclined to bid on things.  Rather silly, I know, but if it's missing, the item better be cheaper than comparable ones that have it.

-Pat

Not silly. I've passed on things, too, due to prices not aligning with availability of missing parts.

[Specmaster]

Its so nice to see that I'm not the only one that has trouble in ignoring the bargains to be had on Ebay etc when it comes to old test equipment.

Hey looks like you followed my link here from the other thread! 

Yea you belong here - oh yea. I personally would love to see some pics of the gear you have especially the lesser known makes.

Ok, let me know what you'd like to pics of and I'll see what I can do.

We'll make it easy.  All of it.   

And welcome to the TEA party.

-Pat

Where should I post these pics, in this thread or what?

[bd139]

In the thread

This is like holding an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in the pub though

[Specmaster]

Ok, mines a pint by the way

[AF6LJ]

In the thread

This is like holding an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in the pub though

Ya gotta love it, celebrating your addiction is is much better than fighting it.

[bitseeker]

I'll drink to that. Cheers!

(We need a cheers smiley)

[xrunner]

Ya gotta love it, celebrating your addiction is is much better than fighting it.

Hehe - yea but I think we all had better stay in engineering and out of the medical profession. 

[djos]

I'll drink to that. Cheers!

(We need a cheers smiley)

Like this?



 

[bitseeker]

Yup. It was added to Unicode 6.0 in 2010 and Emoji 1.0 in 2015. http://emojipedia.org/clinking-beer-mugs/

[djos]

Yup. It was added to Unicode 6.0 in 2010 and Emoji 1.0 in 2015. http://emojipedia.org/clinking-beer-mugs/

Perhaps Dave could add it? (or does he have a Sys Admin running the forum?)

[AF6LJ]

Ya gotta love it, celebrating your addiction is is much better than fighting it.

Hehe - yea but I think we all had better stay in engineering and out of the medical profession. 

That's a really good idea....

[smurph]

Well...  I got another DC load, TDI DLP-50-60-1000A.  And I don't know why other than I just happen to like them these days.  I saw it and it was just too cute to pass up.  Big puppy dog eyes, you know.  One just isn't enough!  You never know when you need to test two power supplies at once. 

I went through a similar fetish with frequency counters.  And now I'm thinking about them again.  Unfortunately for me, I probably won't get to feed the addiction again until the first of the year, what with Christmas coming up and all.  So I will have to live vicariously through this thread! 

Steve

[Cubdriver]

Frequency counters are frighteningly addictive if they contain neon.   

-Pat

[neo]

Frequency counters are frighteningly addictive if they contain neon.   

-Pat

Yes they are, speaking of frequency counters containing neon were you ever able to come up with an idea for my 5340A?

[Cubdriver]

Frequency counters are frighteningly addictive if they contain neon.   

-Pat

Yes they are, speaking of frequency counters containing neon were you ever able to come up with an idea for my 5340A?

Ugh!!  Between working on my house, helping a friend paint her new place, travel for work, and general insanity, I haven't gotten to dig into things.  Mine is still sitting on the bench as it was when last we talked about this (though before reapplying power, I'm going to have to examine it closely as lord only knows what the cats have managed to drop into it over this interval - they know they're not supposed to climb on the bench, so of course that increases the appeal of doing so by several orders of magnitude, and they don't have a great deal of impulse control).  I have been meaning to get back into it...  This might be the poke I need to get moving on it again.

-Pat

[neo]

Frequency counters are frighteningly addictive if they contain neon.   

-Pat

Yes they are, speaking of frequency counters containing neon were you ever able to come up with an idea for my 5340A?

Ugh!!  Between working on my house, helping a friend paint her new place, travel for work, and general insanity, I haven't gotten to dig into things.  Mine is still sitting on the bench as it was when last we talked about this (though before reapplying power, I'm going to have to examine it closely as lord only knows what the cats have managed to drop into it over this interval - they know they're not supposed to climb on the bench, so of course that increases the appeal of doing so by several orders of magnitude, and they don't have a great deal of impulse control).  I have been meaning to get back into it...  This might be the poke I need to get moving on it again.

-Pat

I can definitely understand the problem with cats.  I got 5 myself, _{yes 5 i am a pet person more so than a people person}, and they just love wreaking havoc.
Lucky me, i have my workbench in such a state of disarray and chaos that it, by nature, scares them off. I have a 14 pound cat stupid as a sack of rocks that liked to climb up onto the second shelf and sleep in the back, i solved the problem by filling the space though he still tries.

[bd139]

I don't have cats and can't stand them. I remember living at home in the late 1980s. I'd be sitting there having just got something working, usually an audio PA or something back then and the cat would jump up and plant its arse right in the middle of my breadboard so it could endulge in it's regular narcissistic ritual annoyance.  Got a burning hot TO220 up the crack once. Didn't do that again.

[neo]

I don't have cats and can't stand them. I remember living at home in the late 1980s. I'd be sitting there having just got something working, usually an audio PA or something back then and the cat would jump up and plant its arse right in the middle of my breadboard so it could endulge in it's regular narcissistic ritual annoyance.  Got a burning hot TO220 up the crack once. Didn't do that again.

  The thing with cats is, at least for me, is that they like to think they have a fundamental right to do whatever they want. Prove your bigger and in charge and you mess with their heads.

[bd139]

Actually this reminds me of my old Tektronix 475. I got it from eBay for a silly low £50. Turned out the previous owner was a smoker and cat owner. The fan filter was missing too. When I opened it up there was soggy nicotine bound cat fur balls all inside it wherever the air flow hit an edge.  Took me a day and half a bottle of IPA to clean that out. Yuck. Smell took a month to go away. Now I've never been a smoker myself but I have worked in a lab testing tobacco's awesome destructive power on plastics (worst job ever) and the combination of that stuff and cat fur is not something you want in your delicate electronics. It produces an extremely strong and adhesive putty that you could stick a car together with.

[Berni]

Wow sounds horrible.

Makes me appreciate it that much more when i get a piece of old test gear that looks so clean inside that it might as well been running in a clean room all its life.

[bd139]

Never seen anything that ran in a clean room

I worked I the test gear department of a large engineering company once in the age of "the smoking room" and we'd have to wear gloves before servicing stuff. Glad those days are now gone. Absolutely no one in my team smokes now.

I miss that. It was like TEA without the financial burden. Well apart from the pay being shit as a junior monkey boy. By some cruel line of fate I ended up managing their software division. Bad bad idea that was.

[smurph]

I miss my cat cat of 19 years.  He was a big 18 pound beast.  Killed anything he could get his paws on.  He never jumped up on the bench, desk, or keyboard.  Instead, he would sit on the floor and look at me.  I mean stare at me when I was working like he was expecting the job to get done.  My wife started calling him my manager.  "Oh sit, management is coming!"  About the only trouble he ever gave me was we would occasionally fight over who got to sit in my chair.  I would win that battle.  Management can't have everything. 

Poor guy got stomach cancer and it took him out fast.    Now that he is gone, I'm a full on slacker. 

Steve

[Specmaster]

Wow, 19 years for a cat is good, I had 2 boys that lasted 18 years, missed them like crazy, couldn't bring myself to getting another too soon but after a year or so got another couple, girls this time, their lovely and only jump on the bench if they want feeding and I'm ignoring them.